


Blue, Stunted

by Revieloutionne



Category: Denji Sentai Megaranger
Genre: "polite" homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 11:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8889067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revieloutionne/pseuds/Revieloutionne
Summary: Is there a greater recipe for disaster than handing a gifted student an outcome other than unqualified success?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/gifts).



Things were going well after graduation. Everyone had gotten into the colleges they wanted to, even Kenta. He and Shun were attending schools in the same ward of Tokyo, so they wound up renting an apartment together. Shun's parents were relieved he wouldn't be on his own. Kenta's parents were relieved Kenta would be on his own, but had very sympathetic looks for Shun as they helped their son move in.

He was surprised, actually, not only at Kenta's ability to keep his mess to his own space, but at how much less mess there was than he expected.

Everyone met up pretty frequently to go out for food and catch up with each other. Usually it was everyone (sometimes even Yuusaku, but mostly he would just video-call from INET), but college is a busy time so smaller groups weren't uncommon. Plus, of course, Shun and Miku had an exclusive-but-not-serious thing going. It let them turn down suitors and it's not like they were bad company for each other, but they both knew Miku was just filling time until she could have what she really wanted.

Chisato came out to her parents in the middle of her second semester, and with that out of the way she “stole” Miku, no hard feelings. Shun stopped by to pick Chisato up for a group outing a few weeks after and her parents asked if he was her boyfriend. It was probably rude to laugh, but he didn't know what else to do.

A couple months later, Shun walked in on Kenta and Kouichirou furiously making out, and Kubota of all people won the pool on that one. They were pretty serious for a good while; they had fights, but it wasn't until nearly the end of their second year of college that Shun came home to find Kenta crying because they'd broken up for real, and for some reason Kenta wouldn't tell him why.

Kouichirou wouldn't either, and for some reason he seemed more annoyed at Shun than Kenta, even though he didn't have anything to do with the breakup. He asked Chisato what she thought, but all she said is “I can guess, but it's no help to anyone if my guess is wrong.”

It wasn't until Kenta fell asleep on him while they were watching some terrible monster movie in their living room instead of studying for midterms that Shun realized that without thinking about it he'd been very carefully avoiding doing anything like this while Kenta and Kouichirou were dating, and _why_.

Shun spent the next week agonizing over what combination of answers to “does Kenta like me?” and “does Kenta think I like  _him_ ?” led to Kenta not telling him why he and Kouichirou broke up before finally taking a page out of Miku's book and just going for it.

Kenta pushed him away before the kiss made contact.

“Hey!” Kenta said. “You can't just take someone's first kiss!”

“What?”

“It's rude!”

“I'm _am_ sorry but Kenta,” Shun said, extremely confused, “this isn't your first kiss.”

“No I don't mean first kiss _ever_ ,” Kenta said. “The first one in a relationship!”

“Oh.”

“It's bad luck if it isn't mutual, you know.”

“Is it?”

“Well,” Kenta said, “I've never heard anyone say so, but it makes sense don't you think?”

“It does,” Shun said, smiling. “When did you get smart?”

“When you got dumb, I guess.”

“Well I guess that explains why I have a dumb question,” Shun joked, “but you _do_ want a mutual kiss with me?”

“I thought you'd never ask.”

***

Kouichirou thawed pretty quickly once he found out Shun didn't actually know he'd fallen for Kenta until after the breakup, but as high school drifted further into the past and new people and interests and tasks kept appearing in the present, the group wasn't able to meet up as often. Where before they'd mostly met as a group, now they caught up one-on-one more often than not. They all made sure to make the yearly meeting on the anniversary of graduation, even Yuusaku and Kubota, but any other group plan seemed to always wind up with at least one of them begging off.

They did all make it to Chisato and Miku's wedding (absent any parents, but perhaps in some ideal future when they had another that the law would recognize that would change), of course, shortly after finishing college.

Chisato started working as a news photographer, Miku (after many changed majors) at a zoo, Kouichirou had a government job, Kenta went straight into teaching at Moroboshi High, and Shun... foundered.

Shun still had his passion and talent for 3D design, but that didn't mean much when nobody was hiring. Kubota tried pulling some strings at INET, but after budget cuts the purse strings ultimately just couldn't move.

Eventually Shun started spending days at Kenta's parents' grocery, where they gave him too little to do and too much pay, but it got him out of the apartment at least. Still, it was hard not to get jealous hearing how fond of his students Kenta was and how happy his job made him. He thought he'd accepted the state of things, but then their first school reunion happened.

***

“So I hear Kenta's teaching here, isn't that wild?” Jiro asked, clearly expecting Shun to still be adjusting to the news. “I bet he and Mr. Ooiwa still get on like gangbusters.”

“You don't know the _half_ of it,” Shun let out before he could stop himself.

“I'm sorry, what?”

“I let them both in once after they went drinking instead of sending Ooiwa home,” Shun said, preparing for a conversation he did not want to have. “It was teeeeeerrible.”

“Why were they at your place?”

“It's _our_ place, actually,” Shun said. “Our colleges were so close it just made sense.”

“Oh,” Jiro said, looking at two and two and resolutely not thinking of four, “that must have saved you a lot of money.”

“It's been convenient, yes.”

“You're still doing that 3D computer stuff, right?” Jiro asked. Shun nodded. “Does that not pay enough for a place of your own? I thought it was prestigious stuff.”

“Well it is when there's a permanent position there for you to fill,” Shun said, burying his bitterness as much as possible. “I've been doing some freelancing, so it's not about the money I _have_ as much as wanting more stability first.”

“Oh, of course,” Jiro said.

“I haven't had any complaints about my work,” Shun continued, “but if they aren't taking anyone on then they can't take _me_.”

“Absolutely,” Jiro said. “Just hang in there; I'm sure something will open up for you.”

“Well if _Kenta_ can find gainful employment...,” Shun joked, trailing off with a hopefully not too bitter chuckle.

“Oh, you know what!” Jiro said. “I'm not 100% sure if this is your thing, but I have a friend from college who's been working on a game but needs someone who can build the levels; I could put in a good word, if you want.”

“It's not what I planned for,” Shun understated, “but a change of pace and bit of a learning experience would be nice. I'll at least consider it if you can have him send me the details.”

“Glad to be of help!” Jiro said. “I'll get him your card?”

“I don't have–,” Shun paused. “Not here with me. I should have brought them, but I didn't connect 'high school people' with 'networking'. You can add me to your contacts, right?”

“Sure!” Jiro said. “If you can get me your card sometime in the future it'll work better as a reminder to pass it along, but I can put you in my phone, yeah.”

***

“Hey, what's eating you?” Kenta asked, flinching at how hard Shun slammed the door when they got home from the reunion.

“Nothing,” Shun said.

“Bull.”

“I'm not mad!” Shun shouted. Kenta gave him a look. “Okay, I'm mad.”

“At?”

“Nothing you did!” Shun said. “Well you did, but you didn't do it _at_ me and it would have been fine if–”

“Shun,” Kenta said, hugging him, “just get it out, and then we can–”

“ _You_ were supposed to be the failure!” Shun exclaimed.

Silence.

“I mean,” Shun stammered, “I mean _I_ wasn't supposed t–”

“Is that what you think of me?” Kenta asked with the smallest voice Shun had ever heard from him.

Silence again.

“Shun,” Kenta asked, voice intensifying, “is that really what you think of me?”

“I don't– I mean– It just came out of me I really can't–”

“It's a simple question, Shun!” Kenta shouted.

“Well I am having some _very complex_ feelings!” Shun shouted back.

“My feelings are pretty simple right now,” Kenta said. “They say you can go have your complex feelings somewhere else until you can explain to me what they are.”

***

Chisato already had a kettle on when he arrived. She and Miku sat with him as he explained what happened, but eventually they had to get to bed before work in the morning.

“I'll let him know you're here and safe,” Miku said.

“Why would he care about _that_ ,” Shun said.

“Oh wow,” Miku murmured to Chisato, “it's worse than I thought.”

***

He was able to stay at his friends' house for a couple days, but they didn't have room for a lodger and he wouldn't want to impose even if they did, so he spent a morning wandering the streets until he found a cheap place, and the afternoon emptying his – no,  _Kenta's_ – apartment of his stuff before Kenta got home from teaching.

He didn't give anyone his new address, and stopped showing up at the grocery. He was able to find an overnight shift at a convenience store that was almost full-time and figured once he settled into it he could occasionally part-time during the day.

***

It's amazing though, how much easier it is to find a bar than a day job when you don't have much in the way of self-worth. Thankfully, the same day Shun discovered this is the same day Jiro's friend emailed him. It must have been relatively early on in his bar crawl, because the response he sent not only was coherent and included a proper link to his online portfolio, but it got him a paid position helping work on the game.

***

It turns out that this particular “game developer” was self-aware enough to know he would need someone with more talent to translate his ideas into code. Unfortunately, he was not self-aware enough to know his ideas were terrible.

But the pay was good and it had been so long since Shun had a real  _project_ to work on, and finding solutions to coding problems could be an almost meditative experience for him, so he stuck with it, even as he had to wrangle his employer's ideas into something workable, even as he was learning what made a workable game himself. There was a significant difference between turning a map design into a 3D environment and designing the map to begin with, but he was learning how to do the latter just far enough ahead of his boss's needs to make things work.

And then his boss formally announced the game's existence  _and release date_ to the gaming press without even so much as a perfunctory “I'll let you pretend your input matters” consultation with Shun and the next two months of his life were nonstop crunch time.

During which graduation anniversary fell.

Shun didn't even realize he'd missed it until he came home and Yuusaku was standing beside his door.

“I'm not telling you how I found you but I'm also not telling anyone else where you are.”

“That's a strange way of saying 'Hi, Shun! I'll leave you alone now,'” Shun said.

“Kid you have screwed up and you know it,” Yuusaku said, “you don't need to be like that, on top of everything else.”

“Well I don't have much, so I thought I'd share what I can.”

“That being bitterness?” Yuusaku asked. “I'll pass.”

“You're missing out,” Shun said, shrugging.

“If anyone here is missing out on anything,” Yuusaku said, lifting a bag of takeout from a nearby convenience store, “it's you missing out on food.”

“What?”

“Crunch time is terrible enough when you're at peak performance, kid,” Yuusaku said. “Don't make it worse.”

“Are you _spying_ on me?”

“No, the internet does that well enough on its own,” Yuusaku said. “Now eat.”

***

“So are you just here to feed me?” Shun asked between onigiri. “That seems unlikely.”

“It's April.”

“...fuck”

“To put it mildly.”

“Is Kenta...” Shun said, “is he okay?”

“He has a lot of questions and his most recent is 'did Shun skip graduation day or did something make him miss it?' so I suppose that depends on what your standard of 'okay' is.”

“Oh.”

“Given the situation, he's doing better than most, but you put him in a real hell of a situation, Shun.”

“So what do I do?”

“Talk to him.”

“I can't!”

“Stop running away!”

“Oh, _you're_ going to tell me that?”

“ _Yes_ , Shun, I am,” Yuusaku said, “because I have personal experience with how bad a solution that is.

“Well, you've given your advice,” Shun said, “so run back and tell them all everything.”

“I'm not telling them anything you don't want them to know,” Yuusaku said. “I would love to, but you're barely taking to advice. _Meddling_ would be a disaster.”

“Are you saying you found a way for things to go downhill from _here_?” Shun asked.

“Screw your self-pity, Shun,” Yuusaku said. “Really. Screw it! The longer you're gone the more worried Kenta gets and the more comfortable you get with your little pity party. Don't do that! You can just... stop! Anytime! _Talk to him_. If you're really so frightened by that you're willing to keep hurting yourself and Kenta–”

“I am, so if you're done?”

“I guess I am.”

“Bye.”

***

Somehow, Shun pulled through on the game. It wasn't breaking sales records, but word-of-mouth was great on playgrounds and there wasn't a schoolkid who hadn't at least heard of it. Critics were mostly charmed, and Shun found himself standing at the back of an awards ceremony audience near the end of the year as his boss gave an acceptance speech.

“It should be you up there,” a familiar voice said beside him.

“Well that's kind of you,” Shun said, still trying to place the voice as he turned to the speaker, “but it's his name on the g–”

“It's his name on the dev blog too,” Kenta said, “but I recognize the way you complain about computers not doing what they should.”

“How–”

“My students all love your game, of course I had to check it out.”

“I–”

“I almost didn't play it when I saw your name on the website, but I had to know what you've been doing.”

“You aren't mad?”

“I wanted to be,” Kenta said, “at least for a little while, once Chisato finally convinced me I hadn't done something terrible to make you leave.”

“You didn't!”

“I know,” Kenta said. “I don't think I really fully accepted it until I saw in the game, though.”

“I didn't put it in the–”

“The knight in red and the princess in blue?”

“...Oh my god I _did_.”

“I have to say,” Kenta said, “it _would_ be nice if you had tits like that.”

“Nooooo,” Shun groaned. “Please don't remind me of those.”

“I was trying to make you laugh,” Kenta said.

“I know,” Shun said. “It was cute, but I spent _three months_ making tiny changes to the model to shrink those down from where that perv originally designed them to something you could almost pretend is a reasonable size.”

“Wow.”

“I have a _lot_ of stories about working with that guy,” Shun said, reaching for Kenta's hand, “if you want to hear them?”

“I have a house now.”

“I'm sorry, what?”

“I had a whole thing planned and it went off course and that just kinda popped out because I've been trying to get back to it, sorry.”

“I think we were better at saving the world than we are at this.”

“Sounds right.”

“So a house, huh?”

“Yes!” Kenta said. “I've been there for a few months and it still feels empty.”

“I think I see where this is going,” Shun said, smiling a bit.

“I don't want to be too forward–”

“You're not,” Shun said, squeezing Kenta's hand. “And since I know how 'his' game did tonight already, I can cut out of here anytime. Say... now?”

“Now works.”

 


End file.
